10 Mar 2011

Anaesthesia and the Brain

From Our Changing World, 9:34 pm on 10 March 2011

Alistair and Moira Steyn Ross

Alistair Steyn-Ross, left, and Moira Steyn-Ross hope their brain model will be a step towards better understanding of unconsciousness.(image: University of Waikato)

Although anaesthetics have been used since the mid-19th century, the exact mechanism of how they work is not well understood. Jamie Sleigh, an anaesthetist at Waikato Hospital, has puzzled over the mysterious drift into unconsciousness and how the brain slips so suddenly from being awake and aware into complete unconsciousness. When he approached University of Waikato physicists Moira and Alistair Steyn-Ross, they began a collaboration which resulted in a theoretical model of the brain. It suggests that rather than descending gradually, the brain goes through a discrete and clearly defined transition, known in physics as a phase transition. The team hopes that better knowledge of anaesthetic unconsciousness will not only improve patient safety but also bring us a step closer to understanding other changes in brain states, including sleep.

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